Had Dylan Raiola stuck with his original commitment as a high school recruit, he’d be competing to be Ohio State’s starting quarterback right now. Instead, he’s preparing for his second year as the starter at Nebraska.
A five-star prospect who was at one time ranked as the No. 1 overall prospect in the 2024 recruiting class, Raiola was expected to be Ohio State’s quarterback of the future when he committed to the Buckeyes in May 2022. That December, however, Raiola decommitted from Ohio State. The script repeated itself in 2023, when Raiola committed to Georgia in May before ultimately signing with Nebraska in December.
More than two years removed from his decommitment, Raiola has never gone into detail publicly about what prompted him to back off of his initial commitment to Ohio State. That didn’t change at this week’s Big Ten Media Days, but Raiola spoke positively about Ryan Day and the Buckeyes when he was asked about them – though he’s happy he chose to be a Cornhusker in the end.
“It was just a decision that myself and my family made. I'm not gonna go too deep into that just because I'm just gonna be present where I'm at now,” Raiola said. “I still have a lot of respect for Coach Day and his program, but yeah, I'm happy at Nebraska.”
While Raiola once envisioned himself playing for the home team at Ohio Stadium, he played in the Shoe as a visitor last season when the Buckeyes hosted Nebraska in their seventh game of the regular season. Ohio State was expected to blow out the Cornhuskers, who were coming off of a 56-7 loss to Indiana, but Nebraska ended up giving the Buckeyes all they could handle, taking a 17-14 lead over Ohio State in the fourth quarter before the Buckeyes eked out a 21-17 win.
Although the Cornhuskers went on to lose their next two games as part of a four-game losing streak and a 1-5 end to the regular season, Raiola believes the close loss to the eventual national champions is something Nebraska can build on as it looks to take a step forward as a Big Ten contender this season.
“We don't believe in moral victories, but at the same time, it kinda showed our team that we can hang with everybody. And so we just took that and ran with it,” Raiola said. “I know as the season kept going on, it didn't go how we wanted it to be, but all those experiences will help get us ready for this year.”
In his postgame press conference following that game, Raiola expressed disappointment with Ohio State fans for throwing bottles onto the field after a questionable target penalty against Arvell Reese (one the Big Ten ultimately determined should not have been called). Raiola said he felt the bottle throwing “disrespects football and the nature of it.”
On Tuesday in Las Vegas, however, Raiola was far more complimentary of the Ohio Stadium crowd. In an interview with Snapback Sports, Raiola said Ohio Stadium is the toughest Big Ten stadium he’s played in so far (“Not even close,” Raiola added). He gave more praise to the environment in the Shoe during his interview with the media at large.
“I was on the opposite sideline than I really had planned on,” Raiola admitted of playing his first game at Ohio Stadium. “It was a great environment, everything I expected. From the hype to how loud they were to how hard Ohio State was gonna play, we knew exactly what we were getting into, and I'm proud of our team for that and how we fought. So we just gotta get used to playing in more games like that.”
Now, Raiola enters his second season at Nebraska looking to establish himself as one of the Big Ten’s top quarterbacks, coming off of a promising but up-and-down freshman season in which he completed 67.1% of his passing attempts (275 of 410) for 2,819 yards with 13 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. With Raiola starting all 13 games at quarterback, Nebraska made its first bowl game in eight years and earned its first bowl win in nine years, finishing the season 7-6 after its Pinstripe Bowl win over Boston College.
Nebraska coach Matt Rhule has high expectations for Raiola entering his sophomore season.
“I would not have brought Dylan (to Big Ten Media Days) if I wasn't so proud of his work,” Rhule said. “When I recruited Dylan, I said, ‘Hey, come help me turn around Nebraska football. Man, it's going to be hard, and doing something hard is how we become great.’ ... And what I have seen from him, his temperament, his maturity is he now embraces when he is frustrated. ... I think our team is going to play for Dylan, and I love coaching the young man.”
While choosing Nebraska over Ohio State and Georgia allowed Raiola to play immediately, the Cornhuskers still have a long way to go to reemerge as a national powerhouse like the other schools he committed to. Even so, Raiola says he has no regrets about picking Nebraska, where his father Dominic also played and his uncle Donovan is the offensive line coach.
“Doing something hard is not always easy, but it's also worth it if you come through on the other side. And so, it's just trusting the process,” Raiola said. “As much as I didn't want hard things to happen at our program, the things that Coach Rhule was telling me, they happened. And I'm still here now, right? And so, our team's ready. I'm excited. We have a bunch of great dudes ready to go play this year.”
Ohio State initially replaced Raiola in its 2024 recruiting class by signing four-star quarterback Air Noland, but ended up with the class’ No. 1-ranked quarterback in the end when Julian Sayin transferred to Ohio State following a brief enrollment at Alabama. The Buckeyes also still landed the class’ eventual No. 1 overall prospect, Jeremiah Smith, who showed their respect for each other when they shared an embrace in between interviews on the Big Ten Network set on Tuesday.
If Sayin lives up to expectations as Ohio State’s projected starting quarterback this year, Ryan Day and the Buckeyes will have no reason to be upset that Raiola chose to go elsewhere. But given the way Raiola’s recruitment played out, the careers of Sayin and Raiola will certainly be compared against one another as they each look to establish themselves among college football’s top quarterbacks over the next two to three years.
